Surdej studied at INSAS in Brussels, the Belgium Nation Film school before studying at Lodz Film School in Poland. \u201cI graduated from Insas when I was quite young and I was eager to study more. I am more than half polish and so I was very happy to go to Lodz and live in Poland for three years,\u201d says Surdej. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Christopher Doyle and Wong-Kar Wai\u2019s movies were early influences for Surdej. \u201cThere is so much music, poetry, color, freedom\u00a0and invention in what they did at the time. I also like Sven Nykvist, Nestor Almendros, and Ed Lachman. These DPs that worked\u00a0with\u00a0natural light and mastered it. I like to work with natural light and have it as a reference and don\u2019t feel the artificiality of the light. I like the work of H\u00e9l\u00e8ne Louvart\u00a0and I also\u00a0I think she has a very interesting\u00a0and rich\u00a0filmography.\u00a0More recently I follow the work of Robbie\u00a0Ryan.\u00a0It changes. You always discover new ones,\u201d she details.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Surdej met director Jessica Woodworth long before shooting Luka<\/em>. \u201cIn Belgium everyone sort of knows each other. She talked to me about her movie and we went on exchanging about this movie and this became our collaboration and it naturally evolved into working with each other,\u201d Surdej notes. \u201cWe met with Jessica regarding this project and also just to meet. Our preparation process was happening during Covid. It was a long exchange time about the movie, about references and just sharing things.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Surdej explains that Woodworth is a very visual artist and the spaces, the locations and space generally are very integral to her work. \u201cSpace, main locations really hold a role into the dramaturgy from very early on in this movie and all the other movies she co-directed with Peter Brosens,\u201d says Surdej. \u201cWhen she writes the script and re-writes the script, she always interacts with spaces, visual ideas brought by the discovery of possible locations. The locations in Luka<\/em> are very special. She started looking for them very early on and to find the whole chemistry of this location \u2013 what would be the north, the fortress, inside the fortress and outside the fortress was a lengthy research process. The script is built and always evolves, even after she has found these locations. Finding the locations, the visual language and the visual identity of the movie happens very early in the process with Jessica. Sabina Christova , the production designer was also involved from the start. She does the same with music also and involves all the collaborators very early on. Finding the location to make this whole world one and that it connects in an organic way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen I read the script the first time, there were beautiful black and white images on the script,\u201d continues Surdej. \u201cThey were like key images taken\u00a0by Jessica\u00a0from the scout on locations where she thought we would shoot the movie\u2026 these locations were in Armenia. The script was written with theses very specific Armenian locations in her head. Then\u00a0Covid happened, as well as the war in Armenia. So, it was nearly impossible to shoot there during that period at that specific time.\u00a0The film is\u00a0also an adaptation of Dino Buzzati\u2019s novel\u00a0The Tartar Steppe<\/em>.\u00a0It is very famous classical\u00a0Italian\u00a0book\u00a0and she had heard of\u00a0theses possible\u00a0locations\u00a0in Sicily so she started looking there.\u00a0She found possible locations in Sicily with a strong visual and narrative potential.\u00a0Italy came in\u00a0also as a co-production partner so the whole production was moved from Armenia to Italy. The whole visual process had to be built up from scratch. So the biggest references and sources of inspirations are the locations I would say but we exchanged many images taken by photographers who worked mostly on black and white, film references, paintings etc\u2026\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was decided early on in the process that the film was going to be captured in black and white. \u201cThe story of Luka<\/em> takes place in a dehumanised world where much of life has disappeared. Black and white brings you straight into a specific relation to time and takes you out of your time,\u201d Surdej explains. \u201cThe idea was not to have a soft, flat black and white but a Black and White where we push the contrast, that allows us to travel from the deep shadows to extreme brightness and play with all the graphic and pictorial possibilities specific and unique to black and white photography. For instance the work on the black silhouettes of the black hawks characters against bright skies, and the variations of having theses black Hawks on other backgrounds. Or in an opposite way the brightness of Luka\u2019s skin, and Lukas\u2019 body on a very dark background. This black and white gives you many possibilities to step out of reality and bring to the film a poetic abstract metaphoric resonance.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Surdej shot Luka<\/em> on film, super- 16mm and did tests very early on to be sure that it was the right look, resolution and texture. \u201cWe tested black and white, and color film stocks as well. We were really supported by Peter Brossens, the delegate producer in our research process and got the chance to make tests with theses film stocks on location. We opted to shoot in color in the end for the higher sensitivity and as the black and white film stock had a lot of film grain in the bright areas of the images.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Solitude, isolation and absurdity are key themes throughout the film. \u201cWe had to portray Fort Kairos, the army and its\u00a0human hunger for power and authority, the High command,\u00a0the sheer absurdity of\u00a0our soldiers and our Hawks\u00a0waiting endlessly for an enemy to appear, the feeling of time and then our Luka moving in this context,\u201d says Surdej. \u201cI could say that this static side of Fort Kairos is more illustrated by\u00a0tableaux, wide static shot with a work on composition that tries to highlight the power, the mecanic of an army, its absurdity also. Theses shots are really pictorial\u00a0tableaux, very precisely composed, locked and anchored\u00a0in the ground on a tripod,\u00a0in which the men’s bodies move mechanically to the whim of orders. The staging of theses shots is very precise a bit like the day life in an army.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThen there is how we portray our main character Luka in this world and his interiority,\u201d adds Surdej. \u201cThere is this bubble of freedom in the fortress created by Luka and Luka meeting the other two young guys. This more organic feel of energy brought by Luka\u2019s presence, the freedom of his soul, the bodies of men and sensuality of movement will be pictured more through Steadicam (performed by Jorrit Haas) or through handheld camera work, sometimes very long master shots. Some of theses scenes were very improvised and the camera would follow this deep need of deliverance and freedom. In a way, the camera follows two different energies and the film plays on this contrast and interaction. On one side we have a very static, controlled, graphic and composed frame of Fort Kairos in which we\u2019ll follow with a fragile, free, intuitive and less controlled camera work the spirit of our main character Luka and the need for deliverance and freedom for the bodies of our men.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Surdej and her team had to approach and think about lighting the film in black and white. \u201cLighting to me comes from story, space, relation to time,\u201d Surdej notes. \u201cYou have this fortress outside\u00a0with the heat and the sun and the white sky. You have the fortress inside\u00a0which was a labyrinth of\u00a0caves\u00a0that were\u00a0around 50 meters high.\u00a0Then you have The North that we shot on the Etna, with its black earth and cloudy skies. Theses were our\u00a0ingredients.\u00a0We built the interior of Fort Kairos inside\u00a0caves\u00a0that were sometimes so far\u00a0from the light, it was\u00a0like the darkness\u00a0in a utero.\u00a0We wanted to keep this feeling of darkness and this\u00a0relation\u00a0between\u00a0darkness and the darkness of human beings\u00a0in contrast with blinding exteriors.\u00a0Light there can only come from a whole, an opening close or far away where light travels through the reflexions of the walls and\/or from some practical lighting used by our men. We wanted to stay organic, not feel any artificiality and give a timeless feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lighting a number of locations proved to be particularly challening for Surdej and her team. \u201cSome of our scenes were placed closer to the entrance of the caves (the gathering scenes\/ ceremonies\/dining table), some other were much deeper (High Command\/ beds\/Gaston\u2019s atelier)\u2026 All caves were extremely huge, and high and they would make human very small in scale and we wanted to keep that feeling. Our light sources therefore had to be quite huge to be able to embrace theses spaces. Our budget was tight and with gaffer Tim Janssens we opted for older light sources as tungsten Dino\u2019s softened or bounced\u2026sometimes on CRLS, 2K blondes, older neon banks. As we were in black and white, we didn\u2019t care about the colour of our light sources. The dining table was close to the entrance where there was a big opening towards the light, it naturally came just from one direction. We wanted to keep this one direction feeling of light for the contrast and the pureness. We relied on these big openings to build our lighting. Our main lights there coming from outside were 2 Dino 12K placed on cherry pickers with 4×4 screens in front of them in order to diffuse and keep this softness. We had a soft top light over the table as well. Then quite often we had a vortex with an octa 5 to enhance close-ups.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Surdej tested practical lighting with Sabina Christina, the production designer. \u201cIt would bring a reference of a time period because of the technology used and we wanted to stay very abstract regarding that. So we eventually played with torches but tried to film them so it wouldn\u2019t give you a specific reference to time or a certain technology. One of the spaces where you feel that you have practical lighting that belongs to the space was Gaston\u2019s atelier. It was more a cave\/atelier lighting so we opted for a soft top light, we used old kinflos and PLL tubes, with black skirts around them. Then for the high command, we wanted a religious feeling of light. We opted for a top light with a more clear direction. The ceilings were extremely high. On top of our main table we had a couple of neon banks, surrounded with black skirts and a homemade snap grid, some par cans that would give a strong zenithal direction to the light, hit the table\u2026and we\u2019d use this reflection to light our main caracters,\u201d says Surdej. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Surdej enjoyed the overall experience of working with an international cast.\u00a0\u201cJessica is a very international person as\u00a0she\u00a0grew up\u00a0in many countries and has\u00a0a natural talent for bringing people from different cultures together and unite their talent.\u00a0Of course, you will always have different rules and different ways to do things, but I think if you step in with openness then it\u2019s extremely rich. Everyone has different habits and these different habits make everyone richer if you step into this with this approach. I often work with films that are co-productions, where you have three or four different countries behind it and I would say most of the time people enjoy it. You have lost in translation happening sometimes, but once you find a way to communicate and share then it\u2019s very rewarding and rich,\u201d she explains. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The shoot lasted for 33 days in Sicily and there were three main locations: the Melili caves, the Damn (Diga), and Etna, as well as a small fourth location for Radar.\u00a0\u201cI enjoyed every single\u00a0part of working on this film, I think to work on\u00a0this\u00a0film was amazing for\u00a0every\u00a0department. You have some directors who are more focused on acting, or more realistic movies. Jessica really thrives with images and sounds and she likes to invent worlds. She invites people very early on in the process to shape this world and to find\u00a0its language in a long work-in progress process.\u00a0To find this fortress world was very amazing,\u201d Surdej concludes.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.sbcine.be\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2023\/09\/SurdejPhotobyCarlDeKeyzer5-1200x800.jpeg\")
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